I just had one of the most awesome adventures in Mexico at the artist retreat I put on once a year, Zoe Fest. It was the 10th annual get together of models and photographers from my websites, ARTnudes Network and Communityzoe.com. You can follow our group blog at http://www.figuremodels.org/festx and check out all the great work everyone created while we were all together.

I’ll write more about that subject soon. Just wanted to share a few images I created. I’m 1/2 way through all my processing, cataloging, scanning and editing. I can’t believe it! Definitely check out the group blog. It’s really awesome seeing what a group of photographers and models who are passionate about figure photography can do when they all get together. I love these people!

more soon…

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: Candace Nirvana

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: St. Merrique

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: St. Merrique

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: Carlotta Champagne

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: Brooke Lynne

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: Stephanie Anne

© 2011 Zoe Wiseman - model: Ella Rose

stop it clock! i need 2 more weeks. the sun is just starting to PEEK here. my favorite time of year.

today @ Point Magu State Park, Ventura Co., California

It didn’t suck.

Check out more of my iPhone Photography here: www.iphoneartography.com My annual Hawaii trip is slowly going up.

SoCal Orange

© 1996 Bryce Lankard ~ model: me

Nothing is simple on my mind

trying to unwind and the wind blows my hair further away from my head

I feel every breath it takes

and it annoys me

is that the point

solitude and empathy

reaching down in the depths of depravity

they’re marching in the streets now

after all that work we did when the monster was here

reaping his rewards

buying his dominican republic

sipping on the blood of patriots

while the world crumbled

and you think that the meanings are twisted

mirroring the rich

those depicted

wrenching the oblivion of the soul

till it all crumbles up

i wonder if they listened to the sound of their own thoughts

if they ever felt the wind nag at them

with it’s sultry breath

did it blow them away

there’s no escape for them today

better tell them to go out and play

Zinn is zen to work with. Click on “full screen” for a better view.

Rollei’s, Lensbabies and film OH MY!

Enjoy a few new pictures.

There’s been quite a lull in artists pushing back against agendas that harm society. In music, visual arts and movies we’ve been inundated with pretty things, superficial interactions and depravity. Reality TV with nincompoops and Hiltonesque chihuahua’s yapping in doggy purses about high heels and getting drunk in limos. Is this what art has stooped to? I realize that most artists aren’t making money so they sell out to corporations who pay them to create pseudo art for them, but we have a problem in our society and I think it’s high time for artists to start protesting through their medium. Throughout history it’s been the artists who have stepped up and brought attention to crises. There are a few still willing to stick their necks out who could care less about offending the corporations they hope to court, but they are few and far between and even fewer who are actually paying attention to what is going on. Too many are paying attention to themselves. An artist’s work is supposed to be a window to view the world through.

This past week has been pretty intense. Finally the media is paying attention to the famine in Somalia. Standard & Poors downgraded the United States’ credit rating. Rioting in England. A re-call election in Wisconsin. Syria setting it’s military against it’s own citizens. And where are the artists? Most of them are preparing for Burning Man or stuck so far up their own asses or too afraid to comment on current events for fear people will stop buying their work, or they couldn’t care less or they are too damn scared about what their peers will say. What peers? We set our own stages. Our homeless population is rising. People are going to be hurting even more when Republicans try to cut off unemployment benefits and they’ve taken a vacation until September instead of working their asses off to try and put this country back to work. Say what you will about Will & Kate, but they are the only “political” figures in recent history to high tail it down to Los Angeles’ skid row to pay a visit to impoverished children and families in our country. If Miss Hilton and her stupid chihuahua’s or the Kardashian’s  had any sense of decency they would do weekly penance helping people who have lost everything due to our political strifes. Yet, everyone blames Obama. Sure, leaders are partly to blame, they always are, but for the love of the fairy tale being in the sky… artists’s get off your asses! If you don’t…. you’re just a shallow egotistical fame whore who doesn’t know when their spotlight has dimmed. Art should offend, get in your face, and cause all those who would take what is yours to shun you. I shoot nudes… you should see my hate mail. big deal. Where are the Joni Mitchel’s? More Matt Damon, less Paris Hilton… please.

And yes, I shoot nudes. What does that say for women, their ferocity and their independence? Their strength and our society? I have my own societal reasons for what I photograph. Job after job of being sexually harassed, hired sometimes not because of my abilities but because of how I looked, bet on by co-workers on who could score with me first. Touched the wrong way and looked down upon if I pulled away. You won’t find sex in my work, unless that’s all you can see. When minorities, women, children and different political factions are harassed, intimidated and shunned or ignored you will start seeing uprisings. London riots, Wisconsin re-calls, 1969, Rodney King, Arab Springs, etc and so forth.

Be responsible. Vote. Care. Help. Show. Teach. Console. Step into another’s shoes. And yeah, stick out your neck once in awhile and write stupid blog posts like this one. Come out from your shells.

This post was inspired by Alec Empire who wrote this today: http://www.eyho-blog.com/2011/08/09/london-riots-august-by-alec-empire/ Please read what he has to say.

And then, enjoy a new photograph I made with Zinn Star.

Shedding Apathy - model: Zinn Star - © 2011 Zoe Wiseman

Am I the only photographer who still has any Polaroid Type 85 left? I think I might be. It makes me sad.

Today I had a great shoot with Zinn Star. We worked mostly with my Rollei but broke off for a few minutes to waste away a package of Polaroid Type 85 that I had never put in the fridge for storage. I think the last pack I was able to purchase was in 2006. I’ve been storing refrigerators full of it but wanted to see what a package would do that hadn’t been stored appropriately. I kind of like it a lot.

These are, of course, solarized. A technique of peeling the polaroid apart before it’s fully exposed (about 10 seconds) and then holding the negative up to the sun so it tweaks the chemicals to make the shadows do really amazing things. They become lighter in spots on the negative, where as the shadows on the positive stay completely black. But what happened with the expired film was the brownish erosion at the top and bottom. To me it looks a bit like out of focus vines or leaves trying to take over a scene as if an abandoned building would attract the same.

Sadly, positive/negatives films are being overrun by the environment. The chemicals are getting old and rotting the films like they would old wooden floorboards of a house. I’m glad I have a lot of it left still… this makes me want to preserve it even more. I know those photographers who still have their positive/negative polaroid films feel the same. This is magical to us. We aren’t really into the other Polaroid Types…. they don’t have actual negatives. So I raise a toast to all the photographers out there moaning through each pack of film knowing that you can’t hoard it, you have to shoot it, and the day it’s completely gone will certainly be upon all of us.

model: Zinn Star

model: Zinn Star

I’m a cynic. I can’t help it. The country is being run by people who want to hurt poor people and the banks aren’t giving home owners a break when they find themselves underwater on their mortgage, the 405 is getting ready to shut down, it’s going to be Autopocolypse and people are talking about cats like they used to in medieval times. And tonight when I updated my wordpress site to 3.2 it died. It disappeared. I cried to Twitter about the White Screen of Death. I cry to twitter about a lot of things… but tonight this stranger came out of no where and told me he’d help me… and he fixed my site! And I have this new profound sense of humanity right now thinking about some selfless individual just deciding to help someone like that. It’s so rare in these times! Funny that it was the twitter plug-in that was the problem and caused my site to do that upon upgrading… and twitter came through with this awesome person in return. http://www.twitter.com/ZKWC follow me, maybe I can repay the favor given to me.  Pay it forward… who said that? And follow Nacin… he rocks! http://www.twitter.com/nacin

go do stuff!

Sometimes you miss something… Enjoy a photo.

© 2010 Zoe Wiseman model: Meghan

Just a couple images from my last shoot with Stephanie Anne, all shot with my trusted Rollei and Ilford Panf 50. Love this film. Enjoy the shadows.

Ok – and one iPhone photo.

Stephanie Anne with Coral Leaf